It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell if the site is being powered by a “blogging” CMS application like the WP platform, or if it’s been built using some other web editing application. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you went with site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a professional-looking website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use a website development application … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no knowledge of web coding to use, and offers many helpful features that make your website highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by the WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing website with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get something similarly built quite inexpensively?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Web Site Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, or some other content management system.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built with WordPress:
Check Your Source Code For Obvious Tell-Tale WordPress Footprints
If you know how to check the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing your page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site was built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see the words “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, some website development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the site has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you really want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the template has not been modified, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checker
(Is It WP – WP Website Checker)
Is It WP? is a free tool that tells you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite simple. Just enter the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP web site or blog, you will see a message like the one below …
To visit this site, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed on the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
It’s also an easy to install and easy to use web browser extension.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu, in the URL field identifying which software is being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on site:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, go here:
We hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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